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Monday, 26 September 2011

X’s mother, a veterinarian like X’s father, paid a record house to write a song, get X to sing it, record a video and publish it. She paid them $4,000 for a vanity release on Facebook and Youtube. Initially, it received only about a 1,000 hits, but went viral later, remaining a trending topic on Twitter for several days all across the world.

Unfortunately, despite the large number of views, the reviews of the song were mostly negative, and it was panned badly by critics.

The upshot of it all was that X began to be bullied in school, and had to drop out, preferring to be home-schooled. However, X later said that the move to drop out was so that X could focus more on career prospects.

Simple. Identify X. Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!

PS: Happy Mahalaya / beginning of the Navaratras, for tomorrow.

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A dozen answers over several days, and all correct! This is indeed Rebecca Black, of Friday fame, or infamy, whichever you choose.

Sunday, 25 September 2011

What connects these three and an event that took place in March-April this year?

Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!

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Five answers, and four correct. Karthike Ramesh, I was not talking about Rabindranath Tagore, but Raghab Chatterjee. The other two are Ranidu Lankage and Shankar Mahadevan (of course). These three sang the three different versions of De Ghumake, the official song of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011. Meanwhile, I welcome back an old patron of this blog – Partha the oncologist. Nice to see you back.

Saturday, 24 September 2011

Fender, that famous manufacturer of guitars, especially the Stratocaster electric guitar, which has several collections of it released.

This is exactly one such signature Fender Squier XXXXXX Electric Guitar Strat. The blocked-out part is the artiste’s name. Identify him.

Hint: He is the first from his country to be bestowed with this honour.

Further hint (not much of a hint): The following are some of the features of the guitar.

Alder body

Maple veneer

Maple neck with slim C back shape

Rosewood fretboard

Nut width 1.65

Neck Radius 9.5

6105 Medium Jumbo Frets

Duncan Designed HSH Pickup Configuration

Available in Emerald Green finish , Deep Purple Finish , Blue and Red

Sperzel Licensed Locking Tuners

Tremolo Bridge with solid saddles

A better hint, making it much easier: This guitar is available only in India. Oh, and I think you can see his signature on the guitar too!

Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!

PS: Apropos what Kapinjal Chowdhury said regarding QR 341. A lot of people tried to answer the question on several pages of Facebook. As I have stated earlier, it is becoming increasingly difficult to reply to all of them, or even keep track of them! That’s the first reason I haven’t mentioned Mit Chowdhury’s name as one of those who answered. The second reason, of course, was that the answer was not correct. There’s a significant difference between Bengali bands and bands from Kolkata.

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Three answers, and only two correct. This is indeed Ehsaan Noorani, from the Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy trio.

Wednesday, 21 September 2011

Hints: The symbol is the last alphabet in an Indian language. And the gap to which the arrow points towards actually has a name.

Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!

PS: This blog could really do with some sponsors!

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Looks like this one is too tough. No answers so far! The connection is musical bands from West Bengal / Poschim Bongo, or more specifically, Kolkata. The first is Fossils, the second is Chandrabindoo, the third is Cactus, and the fourth is Cassini’s Division. Will try to make it easier this time.

Monday, 19 September 2011

Four answers, and none of you got the instrument correct! However, three of you correctly identified this gentleman as Niladri Kumar. The instrument he is playing is the zitar, his own creation. It is a combination of the sitar and the guitar.

Sunday, 18 September 2011

The words shown above form a famous laconic phrase. Tell me, who said these, and to whom? Even if you don’t get those, simply tell me how this is immortalised in popular culture. And no, I am not looking for the place where these words are inscribed.

Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!

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Five answers, and four correct. This is what King Leonidas said to Xerxes: “Molon labe! (Come and get them!)” Their saga is immortalised in the film 300. Wonder why nobody mentioned it.

Wednesday, 14 September 2011

The X, are often described as spiritual warriors, or warrior monks. Theirs is best described as a ‘post-modern religious movement’. According to the 2001 census of Australia, more than 70,000 people belong to this religion, and according to the census of New Zealand the same year, they outnumber the country’s Buddhist and Hindu population! The census of the same year in England and Wales saw nearly 400,000 of them register as following this ‘religion’, a number which surpasses the Sikhs and Buddhhists there!

Which religion am I talking about? Or simply, identify X, or what people wrote under the tab ‘Religion’ during the census in the above-mentioned countries.

Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!

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Six answers, and all correct! X is indeed Jedi! Yes, those Star Wars people!

Wednesday, 7 September 2011

The list is looooooooooong, and I don’t want much. Just give me the names of the first two films.

_____________ (1962)

___________________ (1973)

Zavallilar (1974)

Nashville (1975)

Yol (1981)

After Hours (1985)

The Player (1992)

Short Cuts (1993)

The Three Colors Trilogy (1993-1994)

Before the Rain (1994)

Exotica (1994)

Pulp Fiction (1994)

The Opposite of Sex (1998)

Playing by Heart (1998)

Go (1999)

Magnolia (1999)

Timecode (2000)

Amores Perros (2000)

Traffic (2000)

Lantana (2001)

City of God (2002)

21 Grams (2003)

Cape of Good Hope (2004)

Crash (2004)

Aayutha Ezhuthu (2004)

Yuva (2004)

Happy Endings (2005)

Syriana (2005)

Nine Lives (2005)

Look Both Ways (2006)

Babel (2006)

The Edge of Heaven (2007)

Rendition (2007)

The Air I Breathe (2008)

Gomorrah (2008)

Mammoth (2009)

Mumbai Meri Jaan (2008)

Ajami (2009)

Powder Blue (2009

Hereafter (2010)

Kaker blanca (2010)

Traffic (2011)

Hint: The list will expand with time, of course, but the connection is a term that was first used and popularised in 2005.

Further hint: The term has something to do with the way I plug my opinion blog here.

And a special thanks to the person who directed me to this topic through one of his questions on a Facebook quizzing page.

Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!

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Just four answers, and three correct! The list above is a complete collection, till date, of Hyperlink Cinema. The first two examples are a matter of pride for us---they are Indian!! They are Kanchenjungha and Titas Ekti Nadir Nam.

Monday, 5 September 2011

4. The busiest day of shopping in the USA since 2005, this specific day comes right after Thanksgiving, and often sees retailers opening their shops as early as 4am, and offering special discounts and deals, because it marks the beginning of shopping for Christmas.

Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!

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Six answers, and only one went off the track, pointing towards Dawood Ibrahim, for some reason. All the others were right. This is indeed Anurag Kashyap. The song has him debuting as a singer, Shagird saw him as a full-time actor, as opposed to his small cameos and guest appearances earlier. Satya was a film he co-wrote.

The story goes that when, later, he went to the censor board with Paanch, they said that the film was not ‘constructive’. And that it had too much of rough language. Kashyap pointed out that he had written rougher dialogues for Satya, and it’s story wasn’t too ‘constructive’ either. Paanch, if I have heard correctly, is yet to see the light of the day.

As for the last clue, the day is named Black Friday, which also happens to be the name of one of Kashyap’s most critically-acclaimed and controversial films.